Actscelerate.com

Amazed

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **5/8/23 9:00 am**

Over the past 25 years my wife and I have been blessed to travel extensively. From San Diego to Nova Scotia, Key West to Alaska and a lot in between. When we started traveling there was no internet and we went to the yellow pages to find the closest COG or another church of interest. That was easy. Then many COG churches started changing their names and it became hard to find OUR church.

Then came the internet, you would be amazed. In New York once we GPS'd to an empty lot. evidently the Church was torn down and the congregation had moved with no forwarding address. IN Florida we went to the address listed and it was now a Baptist Church. That is only two of the many misdirection's which churches should have corrected IF they expected NEW people in town to find them.

Last Sunday was the latest. We were invited by a former pastor to meet at a church in mid Florida near us. WE put the address in the GPS and found a deserted church. From the street i could see a note on the door. The church now was meeting out back. NO POINTERS, a dead end drive beside the church, NO OBVIOUS DRIVE, NO Pointer signs.

That tells me it is a family church and they DO NOT expect anyone new to locate and worship with them. WE did persist and drove around the block
finally seeing a building in a field with three cars near it. NO SIGN what so ever.

It is a beautiful building inside, bathrooms in the foyer and laid out very well, It was a good service, friendly people and pastor. We met and enjoyed our old friends.

Leaving and looking back at the building, a nice white one story building, you would never know it was a church, not one sign saying so. NOTHING saying WELCOME!

Sorry, just a pet peeve I guess...

PS I am not faulting family churches we are finding more and more of them as churches are becoming smaller.

Confused

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Some facts but mostly just my opinion!
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http://shipslog-jack.blogspot.com/

Site Admin Posts: 3222 **5/8/23 3:58 pm**

Did you at least witness when you arrived at the Baptist church? Laughing

It really bothers me that more churches don't tap into those who have a natural talent for noticing the "user experience." There is a certain point when those with the curse of knowledge stop noticing small things, but usually, there is someone in the congregation that has the talent to be able to notice the things you're noticing, Cojack. Not just good outside signage and keeping the website's address current, but also things like cleaning the glass of the front doors with the hand prints from the 5-year-olds between first and second service, inside signage so a new person knows where to take their kids for children's church or go to the bathroom without asking someone, and pictures on the website of an actual church service that shows the range of what people wear at your church because "wear whatever you want" isn't as anxiety-reducing as most people think it is. At a minimum, a pastor could ask a friend who is visiting from out of town to attend church without telling anyone that they know each other and give their assessment. I'd say more churches than not are not visitor-friendly—even when the congregants are friendly to visitors.
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01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **5/8/23 10:22 pm**

Maybe...

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1607 **5/23/23 7:13 am**

Maybe they're being inCOGnito.... pa dum dum...

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **6/19/23 10:06 pm**